We don’t think that many people were complaining about the existing speeds delivered by USB 3.0, but performance about to get even better. The USB 3.0 Promoter Group announced this week at CES that some tweaks have been made to the USB 3.0 protocol that will allow it to be even faster. Currently, USB 3.0 ports are capable of transfer speeds up to a theoretical 5 Gbps.

The new specification will allow the ports to transfer data at twice that speed promising up to 10 Gbps of data throughput. The promoter group expects the supplement to the USB 3.0 specification to be completed by the middle of the year, which should mean devices supporting the higher-speed will be available then as well.

The higher rate USB 3.0 ports will be compatible with existing cables and connectors. The new specification will provide improved data encoding for more efficient data transfer and will offer improved I/O power efficiency. The faster specification will be compatible with existing USB 3.0 software stacks and device class protocols. The new protocol will also be backwards compatible with USB 2.0 ports and products.

The USB 3.0 Promoter Group says that the faster USB 3.0 port is targeted for industry review during Q1 of this year. More information regarding the specifications in planned for release will be available later.